The German national ice hockey team achieved Olympic qualification early thanks to their performance at the 2019 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship. DEB-President Franz Reindl and DEB-Sports director Stefan Schaidnagel commented on this success:
Franz Reindl, DEB-President: "We are overjoyed and proud that the team has achieved Olympic qualification for Beijing 2022. Congratulations to the whole team for this great achievement. This is another huge milestone for our sport in the POWERPLAY 26 sports concept, brings planning security for the DEB and the DEL and means great motivation for players, coaches and clubs."
Stefan Schaidnagel, DEB-Sports Director: "The Olympic qualification has positive effects for us in many ways. Especially now in the past four-year cycle, we have seen what participation in the Olympic Games can achieve. That is why qualifying again for the tournament in Beijing 2022 is immensely important. This gives us planning security at all levels and we can continue to provide positive support to the systems in the sports sector. We can continue to optimize and adapt the concepts with our partners, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the DOSB. Participation also has a major effect on all of our programs in the national teams, league systems and young talent concepts. That is why the early Olympic qualification achieved cannot be valued highly enough. We still have to continue to improve within the framework of our overall POWERPLAY26 concept. We still have a lot of structural and organizational things to tackle, but we have successfully achieved our first goal for this World Cup with direct Olympic qualification."